1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drug inspection support apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a drug inspection support apparatus and method for supporting inspection whether or not drugs dispensed according to a prescription are the same as the prescription.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, separation of drug dispensing from the medical practice has been in progress. Accordingly, it is common for a patient to have a checkup in a medical institution and then bring a prescription written by the doctor to a pharmacy so that drugs can be prepared according thereto. In preparation, a plurality of drugs may be packaged in a container (hereinafter, also referred to as a prescription bag), such as a drug bag. During packaging, a plurality of drugs that should be taken at each specified dosage time, for example, at each specified dosage time in the morning, daytime, and evening, are packaged in one prescription bag.
In the packaging of drugs, for patient safety, a pharmacist inspects whether or not packaged drugs have been prepared according to the contents of a prescription written by a doctor. As a device for supporting the inspection of the pharmacist, for example, there is a device disclosed in JP1998-162116A (JP-H10-162116A). In JP1998-162116A (JP-H10-162116A), when sequentially transporting drugs packaged in prescription bags according to the prescription, the drugs in the prescription bags being transported are sequentially captured and the captured image of drugs in the prescription bags are displayed. In addition, image data of drugs to be prescribed is read from an image database and is displayed.
In JP1998-162116A (JP-H10-162116A), an image of each drug in the prescription bag being transported and an image read from the database are displayed at the same time for at least a predetermined period of time. In JP1998-162116A (JP-H10-162116A), an image obtained by actually capturing drugs transported on the conveyor belt and a graphic image of drugs to be contained in a prescription bag after being prescribed are displayed simultaneously for a predetermined time. Accordingly, a pharmacist inspects whether or not drugs are contained in prescription bags as prescribed by comparing both images.